Clearing up some details on the violation story

I know this is nobody’s favorite piece of reading on this blog, but in the interest of trying to get all of the facts straight on the violation story that surfaced last night, here are a few other items of note on that:
— The original KING-5 story says the violation was for purchasing alcohol for underage recruits. In fact, a UW spokesman says the self-report filed by the school on the incident does not mention that alcohol was purchased. Instead, the report says the incident occurred at a nightclub — not necessarily a 21-and-over only place — but does not specify that the tab was for alcohol.
— There was a bill of roughly $300 that was paid for by some of the active members of the team, and that is what the violation was. When recruits come on visits, they are hosted by a current player. That current player is allowed to spend no more than $30 per day on entertainment involved with the visit. The players sign what is essentially a contract stating that they understand that rule.
I have one of the standard issues of those contracts that basically all players at all schools sign in such instances — and it clearly states the $30 rule. UW admitted that some of the current players exceeded the $30 limit in paying for the bill run up by the recruits. So that was the violation. The spokesman said the prospects paid the money back to the current students and also made a donation to charity. The current players were punished internally and also made to perform some community service.
— According to a UW spokesman, it happened on what was the first full recruiting weekend for the Huskies last year. That was the weekend of Jan. 16-18, the spokesman said, not Steve Sarkisian’s first weekend as coach, as the KING-5 story said.
— The spokesman said when coaches found out about the violation they self-reported it to the UW compliance office and it was then reported to the Pac-10, which has already handled it and it is considered closed. For secondary violations, the conference generally accepts the penalties the school enforces on itself and that’s what happened in this case.
— The spokesman said no coaches were involved in the violation.
— UW did have three secondary violations last year, all in January. But the spokesman said UW has not had any football recruiting violations, secondary or major, since then.
— The spokesman said going to nightclubs is not a violation of NCAA rules for recruiting visits, but does go against Washington’s own policies for such visits. So the players involved were reprimanded for violating that policy.